Hi Shannon! 🙂 It’s definitely emotional at parts, if that’s what you’re afraid of, but it’s handled very well, I think. And since you’re reading from the POV of a very young boy, some of the distress is glossed over a bit. Of course, it also makes it a little more heart-wrenching sometimes, because he’s so young and he’s lost a loved one . . . But just read it! 🙂 It’s such a great book!

Paradise Lost – definitely intimidating. One of my lit professors did his thesis on it, so we spent about 5 weeks reading 80% of it. I made myself read the whole thing, and I count it as one of the most worthwhile things I did in college. I definitely recommend reading it alongside a good guide – Sparknotes at least – so you know what the hell is going on. Most definitely an eye-opening, though. Milton had his shit together on that one.

Omg, I totally remember crying for an hour after reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, and then when I told you to read it you were like “…O…kay?” Haha, it mainly made me cry so much out of rage and helplessness. Like yes, it is heartbreakingly sad, but the thing that got me was the anger I felt at being unable to change the circumstances for the main character, if that makes sense.

But then again, I cried at the end of Beloved, and I still don’t know why I did that.

I’m with you on 11/22/63 and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. I have The Night Circus on my shelf and it’s funny– I started reading it and got about 50 pages in. (Then Christmas came and I had to wrap it and give it away. Oops.) I was enthralled for those 50 pages but now it’s built up in my head. I can’t explain why, but there it is.

You should read the help, even if you don’t end up liking it. I loved it, like everyone else. But you’re allowed to be different than everyone else and not like. But you’ll never know until you read it.